Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Less than a week until Christmas! No panic here, folks. It does explain the quietness of the blog lately, though. But I'm glad to be here today to participate in Crafty Creations Challenges' annual Christmas blog hop! If you've been hopping, you should be arriving from the blog of my talented teammate, Jaime. The full list for the hop is at the bottom of my post. Our theme this year is seasonaltags. The challenge is open for two weeks, and two winners will be chosen! In addition, two winners will be chosen from comments left on the blog hop posts. Our amazing sponsors are A Creative Need, Floppy Latte Designs and Robin's Fetish! Four winners in all, and four fabulous prizes!I really like making tags -- they can be as simple or as complex as you wish. I make lots of general gift tags, but also like to make some that are more personalized to the recipient. Let's start with a tag I made with an image from my talented teammate Deena, the force behind A Creative Need:

I used Deena's holly ornament, changed the colour to green and added a to/from before printing it. The bow and holly are done with Prismacolor pencils, while a circle cut of ornate fabric ribbon completes the ornament. Layered on kraft cardstock with some ribbon and jute twine -- easy! Now, a couple of tags using Floppy Latte images:

I'll admit to printing out the beautiful circle of bells image and then thinking, I'm not going to colour that! However, a little selective colouring and layering makes a pretty gift tag. The other bell tag is simplicity itself! Print, colour and cut out.

Did I stop there? NO. While I was in tag mode, I made a couple of sets to have on hand as quick hostess gifts.

This set of six uses the same stamp embossed in five different metallic embossing powders plus green embossing tinsel, with coordinating paper and ribbons.

The simplest way to make a tag set has to be this Stampin' Up tag-making kit! (Borrowed from my niece.) It was quick and fun to make a set of twelve; two designs, six colours, two of each.

Now, on to the blog hop! If you haven't already, start the blog hop with ANNA and follow your way down the list. We are looking forward to your visits! You can always go back to Crafty Creations Challenges if you lose your way or find a broken link.

From here, the next stop is another of my talented teammates, Lou. Remember to leave comments as you hop for your chance to win. And don't forget to link up your tags with us, as well! Best of luck with any last-minute festive preparations.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Friday -- Unity Friends with Flair time! As I was perusing blogs yesterday, a couple of challenges caught my eye. That and not having played in FWF for a couple of weeks led me to this card:

The colours are from this week's Play Date Café challenge, while the new CASology cue word encouraged me to add some sparkle. I'm still undecided about the snowflake embossing tinsel on this snowman; while I like how the glitter part of the embossing powder just decided to cascade from left to right, the nature of this powder means I lost some definition in the image. I cut the hills then edged them with a silver glitter marker. The rhinestones are my feeble attempt at adding a visual triangle to the design. :P Plus more sparkle! You can't really tell in the photo, but I sponged the edge of the kraft card base with white ink to lighten it a bit and add a little snowy mottling. Works in real life. ;)It will be interesting to see how many of the projects on the Unity blog today are Christmas cards... probably the rest of the card-making world is ready to move on to valentines already! I'm in Christmas mode for a while yet. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

It's Wednesday! Good, if you're looking towards the end of the week; less good if you're thinking about the dwindling days and all the things to get done before Christmas... :P However, Wednesday also means a new challenge at Crafty Creations Challenges. This week, we are looking for a winter scene. Our generous sponsor this week is Whimsy Stamps. I decided there were two ways to look at this challenge. First, you could find a ready-made scene:

There's a great old-fashioned feel to this little scene. After colouring it with watercolour pencils, it only needed a little patterned paper and a sentiment to finish it off.The second, and perhaps more creative way to approach this challenge is to create your own scene.

I'm not done playing with these fun reindeer in their attractive sweaters yet! And this sweater has it all: polka dots, snowflakes AND glitter embossing! Back in October, I saw this card, and even then thought it was a great idea for a snowscape. And I hadn't used paint-chip trees yet this year! Everything came together in this little winter scene. Hope you're inspired to create your own little scene and link up with us at Crafty Creations Challenges!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Happy (?) Monday! I thought I'd share a Christmas card I made for Hero Arts' November contest.

I tried a new-to-me technique on this card... adding glitter glue to an embossed panel with a brayer. I really like the effect it creates. This Joy sentiment with the poinsettia "o" coordinates perfectly. I think I have yet to use it without adding a little bling to the centre. ;) The thin black mat pulls everything together. Simon Says Stamp is having one of their "anything goes" challenge weeks, so this card will be there! See you Wednesday for a new Crafty Creations challenge. Supplies: white, black & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Hero Arts joy stamp, Versamark, Versafine onyx black & Stampin' Up real red inks, clear embossing powder, Spellbinders oval & scalloped oval dies, Cuttlebug poinsettia embossing folder, Studio G red glitter glue, Stampin' Up basic rhinestone, ribbon, pop-dot tapePin It Now!